News and notes

To start off: although I did fantasy baseball with a group of friends for a couple years in high school, I can't recall ever having done a fantasy football league with people I knew in real life before. That's changing this year with the league I'm joining along with Rudnik, Nemo, and a number of "bloggers and regular contributors." We seem to be looking for an extra person to join, so if you'd like to give fantasy football a shot (or if you want to add yet another league) let me know. Fair warning: the league is not contested for free (unless you're an IRS agent, in which case it is).

Next: What is it with candy companies and picking a new random ingredient to add to half their products every six months? Everything goes to white chocolate, or five different products add caramel, or everything goes to dark chocolate. The latest trend, implausibly, appears to be marshmallow, at least at Hershey's; both Take Five and Reese's Cups have added a layer of marshmallow to their mix. With the Take Five it works okay; Take Five is already a kitchen-sink kind of candy, so it's not like it's so ridiculous to stick something else in there. As far as Take Five variations go, though, the peanut butter is always going to be the champion.

Here's the problem I have with marshmallow in general, though - its flavor is surprisingly overpowering. Eating the peanut butter cups, it was virtually all I could taste - and why am I getting peanut butter cups (and all the subsequent fat) if I can't even taste the peanut butter? I guess if you enjoy a fluffernutter this might be the candy for you; I've never had one myself, so I can't say how accurate the comparison is. But while the caramel addition to Reese's Cups worked amazingly well, for me the marshmallow fell flat. If you're going to impersonate a sandwich, why not put a little layer of grape jelly into the cup or something? Actually, that doesn't sound like a terrible idea. You can use it, Hershey's, but I want credit.

Future: there's a Fall Movie Preview coming when I write one. Which I'm planning for this weekend, but who ever knows with me.